This dissertation situates Chaucer's Retraction in the context of medieval thinking about authorial intention and the utility of literary texts. It culminates in a reading of Chaucer's Retraction that emphasizes the Retraction's rhetorical status as a request for prayer, calls into question the presence of a disavowal of Chaucer's literary works, and explores the demands the Retraction makes upon readers.Augustine provided the foundation for medieval thinking about authorial intention through the development of an interpretive system in which readers have the responsibility of seeking in scripture meanings that will build them up toward love for God and their neighbor. Although the first step of interpretation is to seek out the author's intention, God can be trusted to have foreseen all possible meanings useful to the reader, even those not intended by the historical author. Medieval commentators similarly emphasized spiritual utility, as evidenced by the tradition of accessus, or academic prologues, which show interest in the historical author's intentions yet situate discussion of authorial intention in a larger rhetorical context, including consideration of the text's utility. Vernacular authors such as Chaucer and Boccaccio appropriate these interpretive practices in apologies that imply a limited role for authorial intention and leave the task of determining the moral significance of the text to readers.Modern readers have tended to make sense of Chaucer's Retraction by appealing to the intentions and historical circumstances of its author or by describing the Retraction's place within the aesthetic or doctrinal structure of the <italic>Canterbury Tales</italic>. Yet these approaches do not sufficiently account for the rhetorical context of the Retraction. Chaucer explains and defends his intention for the Parson's Tale not to fix interpretation but to influence the reader's moral evaluation of its author. He lists his religious and secular works not to retract or disavow the latter, but to enlist the reader's help in praying for his sins and in giving thanks for his good works. Ultimately Chaucer's Retraction offers readers an opportunity to reflect on their own readings of the <italic>Canterbury Tales</italic>, to pray for the author's salvation, and to benefit from his example of self-examination.

Presentation given on October 27, 2016 at Data Reproducibility: Integrity and Transparency program as part of Open Access Week 2016. / Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus founded Retraction Watch in 2010. Unbeknownst to them, retractions had grown ten-fold in the previous decade. Oransky will discuss the reasons for that increase, whether fraud is on the rise, the growth of post-publication peer review, and other trends he and Marcus have seen as they've built a site that is now viewed by 150,000 people per month, and funded by philanthropies including the MacArthur and Arnold Foundations.

Bacteria of the Neisseria are predominately commensal, though N. gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis are capable of causing disease. Both of these species often asymptomatically colonize humans, a trait reminiscent of their commensal cousins. The factors that shift the balance between asymptomatic carriage and disease are unknown. Pathogenic Neisseria use retractile surface structures called Type IV pili to coordinate community behavior and to initiate and sustain infection. Previously, the contributions of pilus retraction have been studied by deleting the pilus retraction motor, PilT. Recent findings suggest the speed and force exerted by pilus retraction is responsive to environmental cues. By examining several PilT mutants that maintain the ability to retract pili, I show retraction, per se, is not required for N. gonorrhoeae social interactions with bacteria or with human cells. Furthermore, Type IV pilus retraction by the commensal N. elongata affects the host cell differently than retraction by N. gonorrhoeae. These observations collectively suggest pilus retraction properties shape the host cell response to Neisseria colonization and could tip the balance of asymptomatic colonization to symptomatic disease.

A base de solo-cimento é um material de alta qualidade e durabilidade empregada na pavimentação rodoviária. Atualmente no Brasil, sua dosagem é realizada a partir de ensaios mecânicos, de forma a definir um valor mínimo de cimento que apresente resistência satisfatória. O foco da pesquisa consiste no estudo de prováveis diferenças na forma da adição do cimento: (i) mistura realizada com o solo seco, procedimento comumente adotado para dosagem, ou ainda (ii) mistura realizada com solo úmido, condição que representa o processo de produção em pista, ou usina. Ensaios mecânicos de resistência e rigidez foram realizados para as duas condições de umidade de mistura e para quatro tempos de cura (3, 7, 14 e 28 dias). As amostras moldadas a partir da umidade higroscópica apresentaram maiores valores de resistência à compressão simples e módulo de resiliência, porém menores de valores de resistência à tração por compressão diametral. O grau de saturação obtido na compactação Proctor das amostras de solo mostram que o solo compactado na umidade de campo atinge menores índices de vazios, resultando em massa específica aparente seca superiores ao solo compactado a partir da umidade higroscópica. Através do acompanhamento de um trecho experimental, foram realizadas medidas de bacias de deflexão com equipamento FWD, com o objetivo de retroanalisar os módulos resilientes das camadas constituintes da estrutura do pavimento. Os valores de módulo de resiliência retroanálisados apresentaram variações quando comparados com as determinações de rigidez determinadas em laboratório. / The soil-cement base-layer is a high quality and durable material employed in construction road. In Brazil, the soil-cement mix design is based on mechanical tests, in order to define a minimum cement content to assure satisfactory strength. The aim of this research is to study possible differences in the way cement is added to the mixture: (i) soil in the dry moisture condition (hygroscopic), common procedure adopted in laboratory for the mixture design, or (ii) soil in the wet moisture condition, common procedure during the road construction, or in the mix plant. Mechanical tests for strength and stiffness measurement were performed using both initial moisture conditions, and for four curing times (3, 7, 14, and 28 days). The sample compacted in the hygroscopic moisture condition showed higher strength in ultimate compressive strength (UCS) and resilient modulus (RM) tests. The degree of saturation calculated for the soil samples from the compaction test (Proctor) showed that the soil at wet moisture condition decreased the air voids. It resulted in higher dry density when compared with the soil at the dry moisture condition. One experimental test site, with soil-cement in the base layer was constructed and monitored. Its structural evaluation with Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) was used for backcalculation of the resilient modulus of the pavement layers. The backcalculated resilient modulus results were smaller than the values obtained from laboratory sample testing.

A base de solo-cimento é um material de alta qualidade e durabilidade empregada na pavimentação rodoviária. Atualmente no Brasil, sua dosagem é realizada a partir de ensaios mecânicos, de forma a definir um valor mínimo de cimento que apresente resistência satisfatória. O foco da pesquisa consiste no estudo de prováveis diferenças na forma da adição do cimento: (i) mistura realizada com o solo seco, procedimento comumente adotado para dosagem, ou ainda (ii) mistura realizada com solo úmido, condição que representa o processo de produção em pista, ou usina. Ensaios mecânicos de resistência e rigidez foram realizados para as duas condições de umidade de mistura e para quatro tempos de cura (3, 7, 14 e 28 dias). As amostras moldadas a partir da umidade higroscópica apresentaram maiores valores de resistência à compressão simples e módulo de resiliência, porém menores de valores de resistência à tração por compressão diametral. O grau de saturação obtido na compactação Proctor das amostras de solo mostram que o solo compactado na umidade de campo atinge menores índices de vazios, resultando em massa específica aparente seca superiores ao solo compactado a partir da umidade higroscópica. Através do acompanhamento de um trecho experimental, foram realizadas medidas de bacias de deflexão com equipamento FWD, com o objetivo de retroanalisar os módulos resilientes das camadas constituintes da estrutura do pavimento. Os valores de módulo de resiliência retroanálisados apresentaram variações quando comparados com as determinações de rigidez determinadas em laboratório. / The soil-cement base-layer is a high quality and durable material employed in construction road. In Brazil, the soil-cement mix design is based on mechanical tests, in order to define a minimum cement content to assure satisfactory strength. The aim of this research is to study possible differences in the way cement is added to the mixture: (i) soil in the dry moisture condition (hygroscopic), common procedure adopted in laboratory for the mixture design, or (ii) soil in the wet moisture condition, common procedure during the road construction, or in the mix plant. Mechanical tests for strength and stiffness measurement were performed using both initial moisture conditions, and for four curing times (3, 7, 14, and 28 days). The sample compacted in the hygroscopic moisture condition showed higher strength in ultimate compressive strength (UCS) and resilient modulus (RM) tests. The degree of saturation calculated for the soil samples from the compaction test (Proctor) showed that the soil at wet moisture condition decreased the air voids. It resulted in higher dry density when compared with the soil at the dry moisture condition. One experimental test site, with soil-cement in the base layer was constructed and monitored. Its structural evaluation with Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) was used for backcalculation of the resilient modulus of the pavement layers. The backcalculated resilient modulus results were smaller than the values obtained from laboratory sample testing.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2008. / Härtill 5 uppsatser. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2008. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

The dissertation describes a change in apparent time in the pronunciation of sibilants in the consonant cluster /str/. The empirical investigation of this feature in interviews from Austin shows a lower frequency profile for the sibilant in this cluster when compared to other sibilant productions. This acoustic characterization is indicative of the retraction of the tongue in the production of the sibilant. The further sociophonetic investigation provides statistical evidence for a change in apparent time that is affected mostly by sibilant duration and ethnic identification of the speaker. Additional qualitative analyses further support the interpretation of this process as a change from below.

Autonomy is a concept often used within International law and conflict studies as a tool to resolve tensions between state and a distinct group wanting to break free from the state. However, autonomy has no real definition within international law. Similarly, autonomy retraction lacks a clear definition and conceptualization, mostly due to it being a rare occurrence. There are five known cases of autonomy retraction. The most recent is India’s revoking of article 370 of the Indian constitution previously granting the region of Jammu and Kashmir a special status of autonomy. This thesis used this case to try and conceptualize autonomy retraction by looking at the historical context of autonomy retraction comparing how the region of Assam, Kosovo, Sudan and Tibet lost their autonomy. Historical context tells us that retraction usually comes from legislative changes and increased nationalistic policy making by central governments. Additionally, the case of Jammu and Kashmir has been examined using an altered version of an existing framework developed by the author Maria Ackrén where she looked at how regional/territorial autonomy is established. The altered version used in the thesis looks at if her framework can be used to see how and why autonomy was retracted in Jammu and Kashmir. Evidently, ideology and growing asymmetric power structures and authoritarian tendencies imposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party in India seem to be at the core to the revocation of article 370. The ultimate goal in this thesis was to conceptualize autonomy retraction and while certain components such as ideology and ethnicity plays a large part as evident in the case of India revoking article 370, further research would be beneficial to identify additional components needed to generalize the concept of autonomy retraction.

This thesis is produced in association with the company Dover Fueling Solutions, DFS, that is working towards the goal of developing ideas and solutions to optimize every aspect of the fueling process for vehicle fuel. A recurring problem is that the fuel hose from truck dispensers are left on the ground after being used. This can lead to leakage of fuel and increases the risk of being run over by incomming vehicles. The purpose of this thesis is to prevent that a fuel hose, after being used, remains on the ground and that the components preventing this are developed to resist the correct amount of relevant mechanical stresses. Reasonable choices of material for these components must be selected to resist corrosion since the fuel dispensers are placed outdoors. The scope is to design and perform calculations for an automized retraction of the fuel hose after usage and is achieved with the help of methods such as needs-matrixes, generation of concepts, analysis of solid mechanics and CAD. The result is an extension spring that is mounted in a pylon with a circular cross section that is managing the retraction mechanism of the fuel hose. The demarcations and suggestions for future work in this area are discussed and the use of compression springs are suggested as a potential improvement for the retraction mechanism. / Detta examensarbete görs i sammarbete med företaget Dover Fueling Solutions, DFS, som jobbar med att utveckla idéer och lösningar för att optimera alla aspekter av tankningsprocessen för fordondsbränsle. Ett  återkommande problem är att bränsleslangar från lastbilspumpar ligger kvar på marken efter användning. Detta kan leda till läckage av bränsle då inkommande fordon kan komma att köra över slangen. Syftet med detta arbete är att förhindra att lastbilspumpars bränsleslang, efter tankning, ligger kvar på marken och att komponenter som förhindrar detta dimensioneras mot relevanta, mekaniska påfrestningar. Rimliga materialval måste göras så att komponenterna är resistanta mot korrosion då pumparna är placerade utomhus. Målet är att utveckla en automatiserad indragning av bränsleslangen och genomförs med hjälp av metoder som konceptgenerering, behovsmatriser, hållfasthetsberäkningar och CAD. Resultatet är en dragfjäder monterad i en mast med cirkulärt tvärsnitt som hanterar indragningen av bränsleslangen. Avgränsningar och försslag på framtida arbeten diskuteras och tryckfjädrar nämns som en potentiell förbättring för indragningsmekanismen.